


Tumblr Miscellany 2016

by welkinalauda (iiii)



Series: Salvaged from Tumblr [13]
Category: Tumblr - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-03-01 11:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18799402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/welkinalauda





	1. Chapter 1

[1/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136412236074/larinah-welkinalauda-im-finally-getting)

I’m finally getting around to reading  _Captive of the Labyrinth_ , a biography of Sarah Winchester, and I just hit the family trees.  The Winchester side goes like this:  
John Winchester (1616-1694) born in Kent, England; to Plymouth before 1638; m. Hannah Sealis  
John Winchester (1642-1718) m. Joanna Stevens  
**Henry** Winchester (1682- circa 1750) m. Frances White  
**Johnathan** Winchester (1717-1767) m. Sarah Croft  
**Samuel** Winchester (1757-1811) m. Hannah Bates  
Oliver Fisher Winchester (1810-1880) m. Jane E. Hope  
William Wirt Winchester (1837-1881) m. Sarah Pardee (1839-1922)

 

[larinah](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/136386274292): Oh, that’s interesting!  I had thought Henry’s name came from Benjamin Tyler Henry and his [Henry rifles](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHenry_rifle&t=YjJkMDAwMjMyNjNmZTRkZTc1NTdmYzg2YmMyMjM5YzkzNDAyM2FkMCx1c1ZrN09yaQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F136412236074%2Flarinah-welkinalauda-im-finally-getting&m=1), which later became Winchester Rifles.  But maybe he was actually named in line with the Winchester family like presented here?

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136412236074/larinah-welkinalauda-im-finally-getting): It’s weird reading along further, realizing how many of the big names in 19th century gun design tangentially contributed something to the Winchester brand (Smith & Wesson, Colt, Browning), and also how the major innovation of the Winchester company - their repeater - was actually Benjamin Henry’s work.  What Oliver Winchester did well was run factories and corporations, not invent guns.  And William Wirt Winchester, according to his wife’s highly sympathetic biographer, was a nice man who tinkered productively with Henry’s invention, but otherwise just kind of showed up and was the boss’s son.  

 

It’s not how I remember hearing the story, you know?

[#who lives who dies who tells your story](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-lives-who-dies-who-tells-your-story)

* * *

 

[1/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136431253409/plot-twist)

[#yes but](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yes-but) [#Filch is the rough orderly](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Filch-is-the-rough-orderly) [#Snape is the vaguely House-like attending](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Snape-is-the-vaguely-House-like-attending) [#complete technical brilliance](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/complete-technical-brilliance) [#lousy bedside manner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lousy-bedside-manner) [#which is why he's never gotten the post he wants](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-is-why-he%27s-never-gotten-the-post-he-wants) [#but is instead working the coma ward](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-is-instead-working-the-coma-ward) [#making snide remarks about the patients while on the ward](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/making-snide-remarks-about-the-patients-while-on-the-ward) [#no one likes him](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-one-likes-him) [#but when push comes to shove he is a doctor](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-when-push-comes-to-shove-he-is-a-doctor) [#and he hasn't been taking that boy's vitals for eight years](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he-hasn%27t-been-taking-that-boy%27s-vitals-for-eight-years) [#just to see his plug pulled](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-to-see-his-plug-pulled) [#for Vernon Dursley's benefit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-Vernon-Dursley%27s-benefit) [#(if Harry had died a minor the $$$ would have gone to charity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28if-Harry-had-died-a-minor-the-%24%24%24-would-have-gone-to-charity) [#once Harry's an adult he inherits](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/once-Harry%27s-an-adult-he-inherits) [#and then if he dies it passes to his next-of-kin Petunia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-then-if-he-dies-it-passes-to-his-next-of-kin-Petunia) [#that's why the Dursleys insisted on life support for so long)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that%27s-why-the-Dursleys-insisted-on-life-support-for-so-long%29)

* * *

 

[1/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136475438662/prokopetz-i-think-something-that-some-folks) [casting David Tennant as Kilgrave]

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#the ones who have been marketed to us](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-ones-who-have-been-marketed-to-us) [#as 'good guys'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-%27good-guys%27) [#can get away with any damn thing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/can-get-away-with-any-damn-thing) [#people would rather believe the marketing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/people-would-rather-believe-the-marketing) [#than than their own eyes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/than-than-their-own-eyes)

* * *

 

[1/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136512564734/had-one-of-those-conversations-with-my-oldest)

had one of Those conversations with my oldest sister.  She said how guilty she felt about ‘running away,’ AKA transferring to a much better college that happened to be 3000 miles further away from our mother.

I interrupted her to say that her blowing town had been the right thing to do.  Period.  End of sentence.  The right thing to do.

I did not mention that her bailing out left me on the hook, because we both know that already.  Instead I said again  **she was right to go**.  Because she was.

And now I’m wondering if she expected me to say I felt guilty for bailing out myself 18 months later?  It’s just, I don’t.  Feel guilty.  I maybe should, given some of the dominoes that ended up falling consequent to me making that choice, but I don’t.  I am sad about some of the shit that landed on my sisters… but it wasn’t my shit, any more than it was theirs.  Guilt doesn’t come into it for me.  

Sometimes running out on your family is the right thing to do, is all.

[#shit that happened thirty years ago](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/shit-that-happened-thirty-years-ago) [#still comes up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-comes-up) [#you know how they say](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you-know-how-they-say) [#'of course parents can push your buttons they installed them'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27of-course-parents-can-push-your-buttons-they-installed-them%27) [#Mom went all out installing a top-of-the-line button system on eldest sis](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mom-went-all-out-installing-a-top-of-the-line-button-system-on-eldest-sis) [#must have gotten the extended warranty too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/must-have-gotten-the-extended-warranty-too) [#she's still pushing those buttons from beyond the grave](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she%27s-still-pushing-those-buttons-from-beyond-the-grave) [#so glad I got the down-market version](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-glad-I-got-the-down-market-version)

* * *

 

[1/15/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137402862362/themaskednegro-babylonian) [on the forgetableness of _Avatar_ ]

I never actually saw it, but I did remember some bits from [Sady Doyle’s review](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftigerbeatdown.com%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Freasons-i-laughed-out-loud-offending-several-fellow-patrons-during-the-major-motion-picture-avatar%2F&t=MTg1NzlhODE2MGI3NjcwZTEzMTFkMjk4MzIyMjNhZDQxYTVlM2E1Miw2WXpkWVk2Tg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F137402862362%2Fthemaskednegro-babylonian&m=1).

[#Sady Doyle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sady-Doyle) [#'Reasons I Laughed Out Loud Offending Several Fellow Patrons During the Major Motion Picture Avatar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27Reasons-I-Laughed-Out-Loud-Offending-Several-Fellow-Patrons-During-the-Major-Motion-Picture-Avatar) [#Laphraoig](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Laphraoig) [#the ultimate intimacy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-ultimate-intimacy) [#my excuse for the drinking](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/my-excuse-for-the-drinking) [#the Dragonriders of Perdora](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-Dragonriders-of-Perdora) [#mystical tribal religion dance party!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/mystical-tribal-religion-dance-party%21) [#'You may now choose your woman'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27You-may-now-choose-your-woman%27) [#when they say 'choose your woman' they're not fucking around](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-they-say-%27choose-your-woman%27-they%27re-not-fucking-around) [#VENN AHH ZWAYYY LA](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/VENN-AHH-ZWAYYY-LA) [#I am immune to awe beauty and magic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-am-immune-to-awe-beauty-and-magic)

* * *

 

[1/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137631253354/larinah-welkinalauda-larinah-and-then) [larinah rewatching _Moonlighting_ ]

Remember how they’d just air a random re-run in the regular season time slot, and we’d just shrug and enjoy the show?  

I’ve got a lot of half-formed thoughts about novelty vs quality, and the effects of imitation on each (Clarissa/Hill Street Blues vs Pride & Prejudice/Columbo), and how, if no one else even tries to imitate a work, that work will retain its novelty value.

but I have to go to work now. 

[#hopefully better-formed thoughts later on](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hopefully-better-formed-thoughts-later-on) [#besides 'I should go re-watch Moonlighting'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/besides-%27I-should-go-re-watch-Moonlighting%27)

* * *

 

[1/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137674135314/agent-carter-first-blush) Agent Carter first blush

Hooray! for Peggy hitting people with things until they fall down.  

And, nice to see them seeing the sights, as long as they’re in town.

Not pleased with Thompson - I’d have liked it better if he’d shot himself in the foot because his mentor applied pressure, rather than strictly because his ego was chafing.  I wanted him to be smarter than that, you know?

Jarvis will have plenty of occasion to be made to look ridiculous this season.  No need to cram it all into the first night.  

I don’t know who that clown in the waiting room will turn out to be working for, but I’m betting against the Ringling Brothers.  

Violet, on the other hand, I want to turn out to be exactly who she says she is, and I want her and Sousa to end up happy together.  Though… she probably won’t, especially with Thompson making that crack about Carter living next door to a spy and not knowing.  Mostly I want Carter  **not** to end up with everyone’s favorite white knight.   _Don’t date your coworkers, Peggy.  It only leads to heartache._

[#AC 2x01 The Lady in the Lake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AC-2x01-The-Lady-in-the-Lake) [#looking forward to Rose being pestered by](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/looking-forward-to-Rose-being-pestered-by) [#acrobats and animal acts and ecdysiasts oh my](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/acrobats-and-animal-acts-and-ecdysiasts-oh-my)

* * *

[ 2/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138528538900/belindapendragon-juugmayne-donzlesdead) [kids held at Rikers for more than 5 years w/o a conviction on any charge]

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#I have a couple of questions here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-have-a-couple-of-questions-here) [#like Am I misremembering the bill of rights?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/like-Am-I-misremembering-the-bill-of-rights%3F) [#pretty sure there was something about a 'speedy trial' in there](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pretty-sure-there-was-something-about-a-%27speedy-trial%27-in-there) [#and also Cui bono?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-also-Cui-bono%3F) [#who profits from keeping Rikers full?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-profits-from-keeping-Rikers-full%3F) [#who profits so much it's worth it to the DA to suppress exculpatory evidence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-profits-so-much-it%27s-worth-it-to-the-DA-to-suppress-exculpatory-evidence) [#to keep a kid locked in for five years](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-keep-a-kid-locked-in-for-five-years) [#seriously wtf](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/seriously-wtf)

* * *

 

[2/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138900927029/day-of-the-superb-owl)  **Day of the Superb Owl**

 

 

 

 

_Really_ nice out.

  
  
  


Visible to the left: Guido Sarducci, William Shatner, and a bunch of people we didn’t identify.

[#Cliff House](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Cliff-House)[#Sutro Baths](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sutro-Baths)[#day of the Superb Owl](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/day-of-the-Superb-Owl)[#out there having fun in the warm California sun](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/out-there-having-fun-in-the-warm-California-sun) 

* * *

 

[2/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138914947034/finally-saw-week-before-lasts-agent-carter-i)

Finally saw week-before-last’s Agent Carter.  

I <3 Whitney Frost.  

And Thompson… funny how his self-control goes right in the crapper when it comes to the possibility of being shown up by a woman, but face him with powerful duplicitous men and he’s got a mind like a steel trap and ice water in his veins.  He has  **got**  to get smarter about who he lets pull his chain, and he has  **got** to stop insulting and antagonizing his smarter subordinates.  

[#AC 2x03 Better Angels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AC-2x03-Better-Angels)

* * *

[2/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139466889005/look-what-came-in-the-mail-today)

 

 

 

[ ](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/image/139466889005)

Look what came in the mail today!

[#Happy Happy Joy Joy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy) [#Lego Research Institute](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lego-Research-Institute)

* * *

[2/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139799870553/diet-fads-are-destroying-us-paleo-gluten-free)

 “I have no problem with religious diets. What I have a problem with is religious diets masquerading as scientifically sound dietary advice.”  
– Alan Levinovitz

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#faith trumps reason every time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/faith-trumps-reason-every-time)

* * *

 

[2/23/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139841253157/shit-people-have-forgotten-about-the-bush-era)

On his way out the door in 2008, he gave away hundreds of billions to Wall Street.

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#Bush was and is evil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bush-was-and-is-evil) [#all of it went down the memory hole](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-of-it-went-down-the-memory-hole) [#it either never happened](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-either-never-happened) [#or it's someone else's fault](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-it%27s-someone-else%27s-fault)

* * *

 

[2/27/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/140133976564/thatdiabolicalfeminist-a-photo-of-bernie) [voting is the only way to get Bernie elected]

and  **the only way to get his platform enacted**  is to elect people who agree with him to House of Representatives, and then show up for the mid-term elections and re-elect them, over and over until they get the job done.

[#electing Bernie passes no laws](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/electing-Bernie-passes-no-laws)

* * *

 

[3/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/140279950059/engine-red-skarrin) [Jenny Beavan accepts her Oscar]

She is a woman who voluntarily got on a stage.  As such her first responsibility was to demonstrate compliance with patriarchal appearance requirements.  Which is to say, she’s supposed to have removed all signs of character and age from her face with make-up and plastic surgery.  She’s supposed to be wearing heels high enough and a skirt long enough that she cannot climb the stairs with ease.  And she’s supposed to be showing a lot more skin.  

She was non-compliant.  She did not make a point of appearing before the greater public as a genericized, hobbled, on-display version of herself.   Of course they’re doing their damnedest to punish her for having gotten on that stage at all. 

Wouldn’t want women to start thinking we’re people.

[#I blame the patriarchy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-blame-the-patriarchy) [#a woman who thinks she's people](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-woman-who-thinks-she%27s-people) [#design eternal shiny and chrome](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/design-eternal-shiny-and-chrome)

* * *

 

[3/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/140939617969/dduane-butt-berry-british-tv-cooking)

I used to love the Food Network specials when they’d go to food competitions.  No drama, no trauma, just a lot of people being good at something they liked doing.  Best part was when the camera crew would start asking competitors what they thought of the competition, and the favorite to win would be all, “did you see the amazing stringwork on cake number 37?  I need to ask them for tips.”  

[#I like collegiality in a judged competition of professional skills](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-like-collegiality-in-a-judged-competition-of-professional-skills) [#Much better than pointless dominance displays](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Much-better-than-pointless-dominance-displays)

* * *

 

[3/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141696972100/thats-what-hurts-the-worst-the-absolute-refusal) ["33 and Never Been Kissed"]

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#'someone must have been interested and you just didn't notice'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27someone-must-have-been-interested-and-you-just-didn%27t-notice%27) [#not encouragement but gaslighting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-encouragement-but-gaslighting) [#people are *really attached* to the universality of their narrative](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/people-are-%2Areally-attached%2A-to-the-universality-of-their-narrative) [#my failure to share your experience](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/my-failure-to-share-your-experience) [#does not invalidate your experience](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/does-not-invalidate-your-experience) [#or your existence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-your-existence)

* * *

 

[3/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141882439994/reblog-if-youd-rather-have-a-golden-retriever-be)

Which reminds me: there’s [a cat in Alaska](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FStubbs_%28cat%29&t=NjVmOGM3ODc3YjRkZmU2YjM0Mjg4NWU4YTBjMmY5NzA1M2FlMGM5YyxpWWgza1FhMQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141882439994%2Freblog-if-youd-rather-have-a-golden-retriever-be&m=1) who’s given almost two decades more public service than Donald Trump.  

[#Stubbs for Republican nominee](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Stubbs-for-Republican-nominee) [#Experience in Office](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Experience-in-Office)

* * *

 

[3/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141948604506) [Jensen Ackles in Dark Angel]

[#I remember seeing this scene the first time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-remember-seeing-this-scene-the-first-time) [#thinking 'jeeze dude dial it back'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/thinking-%27jeeze-dude-dial-it-back%27) [#the rest of the cast ranged from competent-but-miscast and competent-but-buried-in-makeup](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-rest-of-the-cast-ranged-from-competent-but-miscast-and-competent-but-buried-in-makeup) [#to the hapless blankness of the dresden doll we see beside JA here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-the-hapless-blankness-of-the-dresden-doll-we-see-beside-JA-here) [#and he's acting circles around them while barely moving](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he%27s-acting-circles-around-them-while-barely-moving) [#stood out like a sore thumb](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/stood-out-like-a-sore-thumb)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

[4/17/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142959788851/snarky-giles-palizinhas-snarky-giles) [re: BtVS's Cruciamentum]

It’s also a test for the Watcher, they said.  The same test that God set for Abraham in [Genesis 22](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.biblegateway.com%2Fpassage%2F%3Fsearch%3DGenesis%2B22%253A1-19%26version%3DKJV&t=NTg3MjdmYTMwNzAyMWM3OWU0YTEwNTc4NzY5NWM1NTI4N2Y1OTMwNyxJajNvaHk1Vw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F142959788851%2Fsnarky-giles-palizinhas-snarky-giles&m=1): will you sacrifice this child that you love at the behest of a remote authority?  To whom is your first loyalty?

And, unlike Abraham, each Watcher sets out  _knowing_ that if the girl he’s training is called, and if she then survives to be 18, then he will be the one who personally sends her to her near-certain Council-inflicted death. 

[#BtVS 3x12 Helpless](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/BtVS-3x12-Helpless) [#Watchers are really fucked up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Watchers-are-really-fucked-up)

* * *

 

[4/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143523107572/stele3-samurljackson-misandry-mermaid)

My dad joined up in June of ‘45.  That summer was eventful for a lot of people, but dad spent it doing basic training.  He spent the rest of enlistment teaching at the radar school on Oahu and taking Sunday dinner with his family in Honolulu.  He finally mustered out in ‘49.

The deal he got was, for each day of service in the army, the government paid for a day of college.  Tuition, fees, room, board, books - the whole shebang.  Didn’t matter which school, either.  They were covering the  _cost_ , not a finite fixed amount.  So dad moved back into his old bedroom for two years and went to U of Hawaii to get his grades up (he’d spent high school surfing, not studying) and then transferred to Chicago.  

Then, because he’d been in the service for four calendar years and school years in the US are nine months, the government paid for the first year and change of dad’s grad school.

When old folks tell the kids today to join up and have the government pay for college, it’s because they think the kids today are still getting  **that** deal.  

Kids haven’t gotten  **that** deal in forty or fifty years.  

[#my dad got more and more liberal as he aged](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/my-dad-got-more-and-more-liberal-as-he-aged) [#because he kept track](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-he-kept-track) [#and he knew he'd benefited hugely from the advantages he'd been given](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he-knew-he%27d-benefited-hugely-from-the-advantages-he%27d-been-given) [#advantages that were no longer available](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/advantages-that-were-no-longer-available) [#he thought everyone should get as good a deal as he got](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-thought-everyone-should-get-as-good-a-deal-as-he-got) [#he was practically a commie at the end](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-was-practically-a-commie-at-the-end)

* * *

 

[4/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143570514975/fast-food-ceo-says-hes-investing-in-machines)

I stopped eating at Carl’s Jr in the late 80s when I found out [the owner](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCarl_Karcher&t=NDg2OWUwODVjNGI2YTU4ZGE2YmZlOTRkNGM4NDVjNjI5N2U4NzdkZSxYcndFcnNwVA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F143570514975%2Ffast-food-ceo-says-hes-investing-in-machines&m=1) was a huge supporter of [conservative](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBriggs_Initiative&t=NjdmYzAzZjg3N2ZkNzE1N2MzNmMzYjIyZTJjYjhhZmIzZTViMjllZixYcndFcnNwVA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F143570514975%2Ffast-food-ceo-says-hes-investing-in-machines&m=1) [causes](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJohn_Birch_Society&t=YWFhYzVhMGE3MzdjMDk4NDVmMTUxMmJkZGFkNDU3NDhiNGVmN2M1NixYcndFcnNwVA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F143570514975%2Ffast-food-ceo-says-hes-investing-in-machines&m=1).  That guy has since died, but it sounds like the current CEO was made from the same mold.

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#don't eat at Carl's Jr](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-eat-at-Carl%27s-Jr) [#or Hardee's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-Hardee%27s)

* * *

 

[5/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144078860211/trigger-warnings-on-campus)  **Trigger warnings on campus**

 

 

So many, so panicked, by so little.  I mean, it’s just tagging, right?  We do it every day.  

The NO TRIGGER WARNINGS screeds I’ve seen read as reflexive rationalizations for an “all proposals from the interlopers are **bad** ” reaction, as written by people who are very invested in the dominant paradigm, and who were once the stars of their high school debate teams.  Literally thoughtless, but powerfully phrased.

The antis are so busy protesting that it’s a violation of _academic freedom_ to spoil works that were published years ago (and in some cases have been in the public domain for centuries) that I can’t even tell if they’ve spotted the real kicker yet.  Namely: once it’s common custom for the syllabus for a lit class to include Content Note tags, they’re going to have to tag the non-con.  

**Lit professors are going to have to tag the non-con in the syllabus.**

Tagging the non-con 

  * will require a public discussion of what, precisely, constitutes consent
  * will require a public discussion of the circumstances which render meaningful consent impossible
  * is an assertion that the consent of all parties _matters_
  * will fairly quickly get standardized for the literary canon.



So those stories you’ve heard of middle-aged professors spending their lectures rhapsodizing about the sublime romance between Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze?  Will shortly be replaced by stories of some confused dude asking why a scene (so approvingly described by the narrator, so closely resembling the porn he routinely watches) is tagged, and getting **told**.  Also, stories of undergrads asking why the prof failed to tag the obvious non-con?  Why the prof is _romanticizing_ the obvious non-con?  And the students will have the literary establishment on _their_ side.

They’ll be delineating rape culture in the syllabus for every Lit class, and deconstructing it in lecture and discussion sections.  I, for one, can’t wait.

[#bring on the content notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bring-on-the-content-notes) [#now is good](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/now-is-good)

* * *

 

[5/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144445747409/today-my-younger-sister-referred-to-me-as-the)

Today my younger sister referred to me as “the nice one.”  That’s an extreme and belated re-writing of the family roles.  It’s always been that Prima is the responsible party, Secunda is the nice one, I’m the flake/font of useless information, and Quarta is the cruise director.  We are almost 50.   **It is too late to re-cast these parts**.

[#if I'm the nice one god help us all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-I%27m-the-nice-one-god-help-us-all) [#and why'd she have to say that in front of Secunda?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-why%27d-she-have-to-say-that-in-front-of-Secunda%3F) [#that was just unkind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-was-just-unkind) [#no-one ever accused Quarta of being the nice one](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-one-ever-accused-Quarta-of-being-the-nice-one)

* * *

 

 

[5/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144461376127/what-do-you-think-of-hillary-supporting-things)

[#Hillary Clinton gets things done](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hillary-Clinton-gets-things-done) [#no she's not perfectly postured every moment along the way](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-she%27s-not-perfectly-postured-every-moment-along-the-way) [#but Hillary Clinton gets things done](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-Hillary-Clinton-gets-things-done) [#unlike Bernie Sanders](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/unlike-Bernie-Sanders) [#whose federal legislative accomplishments are fucking laughable](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/whose-federal-legislative-accomplishments-are-fucking-laughable) [#(three whole bills! two of which re-named post offices!)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28three-whole-bills%21-two-of-which-re-named-post-offices%21%29) [#But he WAS perfectly postured at all times](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/But-he-WAS-perfectly-postured-at-all-times) [#he's made a career out of not being able to work with anyone](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-made-a-career-out-of-not-being-able-to-work-with-anyone) [#a campaign out of sneering at every possible ally](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-campaign-out-of-sneering-at-every-possible-ally) [#a point of refusing to endorse any other candidate for any other office](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-point-of-refusing-to-endorse-any-other-candidate-for-any-other-office) [#no matter how ideologically compatible they are to him](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-matter-how-ideologically-compatible-they-are-to-him) [#and he's got a platform full of policy initiatives that can only be implemented by Congress](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he%27s-got-a-platform-full-of-policy-initiatives-that-can-only-be-implemented-by-Congress) [#Bernie has set himself up to be a mind-bogglingly ineffectual president](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bernie-has-set-himself-up-to-be-a-mind-bogglingly-ineffectual-president) [#but his promises are pretty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-his-promises-are-pretty) [#and he's perfectly postured at all times](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he%27s-perfectly-postured-at-all-times)

* * *

 

 

[5/17/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144495124745/drst-do-you-have-a-flag-morganoperandi) ["Trek vs Wars?" "Gate."]

[#I do that with the Beatles vs Rolling Stones question](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-do-that-with-the-Beatles-vs-Rolling-Stones-question) [#I always say Beach Boys](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-always-say-Beach-Boys) [#but yeah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-yeah) [#I once saw a teenage boy ask Terry Pratchett who would win in a fight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-once-saw-a-teenage-boy-ask-Terry-Pratchett-who-would-win-in-a-fight) [#Granny Weatherwax or Lord Vetinari](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Granny-Weatherwax-or-Lord-Vetinari) [#pterry ducked the question](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pterry-ducked-the-question) [#silly to even ask when the obvious answer is 'both'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/silly-to-even-ask-when-the-obvious-answer-is-%27both%27) [#she cares about Lancre](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she-cares-about-Lancre) [#he cares about Ankh-Morpork](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-cares-about-Ankh-Morpork) [#the victory condition for both is to compel their unruly charges to cease conflict](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-victory-condition-for-both-is-to-compel-their-unruly-charges-to-cease-conflict) [#not much of a challenge](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-much-of-a-challenge) [#the real stumper is to come up with the scenario](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-real-stumper-is-to-come-up-with-the-scenario) [#that would set them at odds in the first place](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-would-set-them-at-odds-in-the-first-place)

* * *

 

 

[5/17/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144513413165/i-was-stuck-in-an-untenable-binary-in-our)

It’s amazing how pissy people get when I tell them I’ve already had their thinness-is-virtue faith preached to me, and that it **is** a faith, one with rather less scientific support than the story of Moses parting the sea. “I just want to help,” they reply, wounded to the core.  And them ambushing me with diet advice will be helpful because, what? all previous preachings of the Word failed to reach my sinful gut, but _this_ time, _this_ person will bring me to redemption?  
  
No. It’s a dominance display every time. A way to say, “I’m better than you.” And when I not only refuse to make the submission display they were expecting, but counter with a dominance display of my own, they get very very angry. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, they never speak to me again…

* * *

 

 

[5/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144563250701/kyraneko-mooglemisbehaving)

I like deep-dish, and I’ll eat NY-style, but given a choice I’ll take my pizza the California way every time.

[#enough with the false dichotomies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/enough-with-the-false-dichotomies) [#give me the third alternative](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/give-me-the-third-alternative)

* * *

 

 

[5/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144598080634/lynn-phillips-a-psychology-professor-at-new-york)

[#I guess it's an ok abuse of power if they're over 18?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-guess-it%27s-an-ok-abuse-of-power-if-they%27re-over-18%3F) [#Hugo was last heard from seeking advice from his Facebook friends](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hugo-was-last-heard-from-seeking-advice-from-his-Facebook-friends) [#on how to phrase his dating profile](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/on-how-to-phrase-his-dating-profile) [#so as to pre-screen out the ones who would bolt](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-as-to-pre-screen-out-the-ones-who-would-bolt) [#when they googled him and found that blog post](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-they-googled-him-and-found-that-blog-post) [#where he equated the time he tried to kill his ex](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/where-he-equated-the-time-he-tried-to-kill-his-ex) [#with a reader letting someone else's dog slip out the door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-a-reader-letting-someone-else%27s-dog-slip-out-the-door)

* * *

 

[5/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144790440722/drst-satirizing-speaking-of-misogyny-let-me)

Puts the lie to that nonsense about how it’s a great, weighty thing to accuse a man of rape, because the very accusation will taint his reputation forever.  

Turns out rape accusations: not such a big deal.  If you really want to taint a man’s reputation, you should accuse him of kicking a dog.

[#people actually like dogs](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/people-actually-like-dogs)

* * *

 

 

[5/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145164716340/pervocracy-innocent-until-proven-guilty-is-an)

If you are the judge or part of the jury hearing evidence at trial, then “innocent until proven guilty” is a fine standard.

The rest of us can use Occam’s Razor. 

[#extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/extraordinary-claims-require-extraordinary-evidence) [#ordinary claims require ordinary evidence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ordinary-claims-require-ordinary-evidence) [#'a famous man assaulted his wife' is an ordinary claim](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27a-famous-man-assaulted-his-wife%27-is-an-ordinary-claim) [#and does not require extraordinary evidence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-does-not-require-extraordinary-evidence) [#so tired of watching people turn themselves into rhetorical pretzels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-tired-of-watching-people-turn-themselves-into-rhetorical-pretzels) [#in defense of patriarchal privilege](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-defense-of-patriarchal-privilege)

* * *

 

 

[5/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145183174151/a-question-i-hear-often-is-when-i-tell-my-partner)

some folks start from “the truth hurts,” take the contrapositive, and end up with, “if it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t true.”

this is nonsense.

[#there is no necessary connection between truth value and subjective emotional reaction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-is-no-necessary-connection-between-truth-value-and-subjective-emotional-reaction)

* * *

 

 

[5/31/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145198379574/in-which-i-join-the-ranks-of-the-clergy)  **In which I join the ranks of the clergy**

Just ordained myself with the ULC so that I can officiate at my sister’s wedding in October.

I had thought about founding my own religion (First Church of Chuck the Last Prophet & Deity) but it seemed like too much work.  Articulating a theology is hard, y’all.  I mean, what is the Good News, here?  That God has _definitely_ fucked off this time, and taken His apocalyptic bullshit with Him?  That’s a hard sell.  And then I’d have to file for non-profit status… too much work.  Just thinking about the tax forms makes me tired.

[#ooooh](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ooooh) [#not just a non-profit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-just-a-non-profit) [#but a non-prophet](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-a-non-prophet) [#there will be no more prophets](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-will-be-no-more-prophets) [#nae king nae quin nae laird nae master](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/nae-king-nae-quin-nae-laird-nae-master) [#we willnae be fooled again](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-willnae-be-fooled-again) [#...going to bed now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/...going-to-bed-now)

* * *

[6/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145290572003/just-got-phone-polled-the-last-question-was)

Just got phone-polled.  The last question was, “Are you completely straight, mostly straight, bisexual, mostly gay, or completely gay?” and I laughed - it’s been standard for a while in SF to close a poll with orientation instead of household income, but it didn’t used to be so detailed.  I bet by next November they’ll have ace and pan on the list…

[#inquiring pollsters want to know](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/inquiring-pollsters-want-to-know)

* * *

 

[6/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145347223641/darthmelyanna-secularbakedgoods-i-know-ive)

You know what would be completely taboo-breaking, utterly shocking?  For a couple to meet and fall in love and get together on screen… and then stay together happily for the rest of the run.  No ‘torn apart by fate,’ no stupid secret-keeping, no pointless ooc adultery, no  _any_ of the dumbshit excuses the writers come up with to keep these lovers star-crossed and apart.  Because right now, constant romance churn is the norm.  It is predictable and it’s boring.  

C’mon, writers.  Stretch yourselves.  

[#so tired of 'he looks happy => time to kill her'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-tired-of-%27he-looks-happy-%3D%3E-time-to-kill-her%27) [#I wonder if the dudes in the writers room won't write a stable partnership](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wonder-if-the-dudes-in-the-writers-room-won%27t-write-a-stable-partnership) [#because they've never been in one?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-they%27ve-never-been-in-one%3F) [#or maybe they were raised on tv that constantly 'raised the stakes'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-maybe-they-were-raised-on-tv-that-constantly-%27raised-the-stakes%27) [#with cheap shocks](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-cheap-shocks) [#and they think that's what the genre HAS to be?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-they-think-that%27s-what-the-genre-HAS-to-be%3F) [#probably just laziness and stupidity though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/probably-just-laziness-and-stupidity-though)

* * *

 

[6/4/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145411030025/why-were-terrified-of-fanfiction)

[#poor persecuted hegemon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/poor-persecuted-hegemon) [#they're horrified at fanfic (etc)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they%27re-horrified-at-fanfic-%28etc%29) [#because it's women creating something other then babies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-it%27s-women-creating-something-other-then-babies) [#Women are FOR creating babies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Women-are-FOR-creating-babies) [#and housework](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-housework) [#the endless drudgery of ensuring men's comfort](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-endless-drudgery-of-ensuring-men%27s-comfort) [#Women creating something other than babies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Women-creating-something-other-than-babies) [#is a practical and existential threat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-a-practical-and-existential-threat) [#to our way of life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-our-way-of-life) [#<= not hyperbole](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%3C%3D-not-hyperbole)

* * *

 

[6/4/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145438435349/root-fandom-and-the-accusation-of-queer) [POI/Root]

[#i don't even go here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i-don%27t-even-go-here) [#but](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but) [#sounds like a 'true fan'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sounds-like-a-%27true-fan%27) [#is one who understands that stories are men's things](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-one-who-understands-that-stories-are-men%27s-things) [#women are props accessories excuses](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/women-are-props-accessories-excuses) [#to support and forward the men's story](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-support-and-forward-the-men%27s-story) [#any 'true fan' would understand that instinctively](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/any-%27true-fan%27-would-understand-that-instinctively) [#Imagining women characters have stories of their own](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Imagining-women-characters-have-stories-of-their-own) [#can matter on their own](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/can-matter-on-their-own) [#makes you not just a false-fan but foolish and dangerous](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/makes-you-not-just-a-false-fan-but-foolish-and-dangerous) [#a radical who believes women are people](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-radical-who-believes-women-are-people)

* * *

 

[6/5/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145468528329/the-real-civil-war-is-inside-marvel-studios)

Those bland ‘love interests’ of Peggy’s weren’t dull because of something innate to the characters, either.  Daniel (for example) was actually kind of interesting when he was Mr White Knight, trying to shove Peggy up onto a pedestal and deciding she’s evil when she won’t stay put.  He becomes retroactively boring as fuck when TPTB pick him as winner of the Hero Sweepstakes and award him the prize girl.  All the possibilities for character development and story nuance, waved away like smoke when the story was made to conform to Management’s favorite archetype.

_nothing new to see here,_ they are saying _. there was never anything to see here it is all the same as it’s always been_

No reason to keep looking at them, I guess.

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#Agent Carter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Agent-Carter)

* * *

 

 

[6/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145645049668/breakfast-vanilla-yogurt-with-half-an-apple-and-a)

Breakfast: vanilla yogurt with half an apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter stirred in

Dinner: reheated Thai leftovers with a tablespoon of peanut butter stirred in

[#for some reason it's stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter day](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-some-reason-it%27s-stir-in-a-tablespoon-of-peanut-butter-day)

* * *

 

[6/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145698825519/drst-perletwo-note-a-bear-kata-speaks)

In happier news, California changed the law last year.  No more ‘personal belief’ exemptions.  Going forward, kids are going to need a vaccination certificate or a medical waiver to attend school.  Which is to say, anyone who’s sincerely adamant about never vaccinating will be homeschooling their kids.

[Vaccination rates are already rising.](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorials%2Fla-ed-0202-vaccination-rates-20160201-story.html&t=YTFhZjUzZTI1NTFhZjlhY2E0N2I0NTZjMGQxNWY1YjI3ZjdmODY0MixFNHUyMFIxbw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F145698825519%2Fdrst-perletwo-note-a-bear-kata-speaks&m=1)

[#gentlemen's hands are clean](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gentlemen%27s-hands-are-clean) [#what a crock](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what-a-crock) [#vaccinate your kids](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/vaccinate-your-kids)

* * *

 

[6/11/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145778747338/the-schisms-on-fandom-and-heresy)

[#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#heresy error dissent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/heresy-error-dissent) [#this is excellent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-excellent) [#there's also something to say about treating canon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-also-something-to-say-about-treating-canon) [#as though it were the Bible](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-though-it-were-the-Bible) [#(divinely inspired; people are meant to re-transcribe it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28divinely-inspired%3B-people-are-meant-to-re-transcribe-it) [#as accurately as possible](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-accurately-as-possible) [#deliberate emendations are heresy error sinful pride)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/deliberate-emendations-are-heresy-error-sinful-pride%29) [#VS treating canon like the Origin of Species](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/VS-treating-canon-like-the-Origin-of-Species) [#(important as a first approximation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28important-as-a-first-approximation) [#but people honor the text by finding the weaknesses within it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-people-honor-the-text-by-finding-the-weaknesses-within-it) [#and replacing those weaknesses with stronger stuff)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-replacing-those-weaknesses-with-stronger-stuff%29) [#Canon creators as deliverers of truth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Canon-creators-as-deliverers-of-truth) [#VS canon creators as seekers of truth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/VS-canon-creators-as-seekers-of-truth) [#Audiences as passive worshipers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Audiences-as-passive-worshipers) [#VS audiences as fellow seekers of truth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/VS-audiences-as-fellow-seekers-of-truth) [#AND a whole other thing about gatekeeping the ranks of the prophets](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AND-a-whole-other-thing-about-gatekeeping-the-ranks-of-the-prophets) [#I wish someone would write that up in comprehensible](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wish-someone-would-write-that-up-in-comprehensible) [#so I don't have to](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-I-don%27t-have-to)

* * *

 

[6/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145827259519/the-schisms-on-fandom-and-heresy)

I was thinking more like, Faraci and his ilk as current authoritarian Christians of all stripes, and us unruly fans as the atheist/humanist/pro-science crowd.  

…and I’ve tried to write the rest of that, like, six times now, and wow, many trips to incoherent tangent city.

Let me try again: 

It used to be a thing, to accuse ‘secular humanists’ of being a religion ‘just like Christianity.’  Part of the proof was that we have sacred texts, ‘just like the Bible.’  The idea was, I think, that we venerate _Origin of Species_  exactly like they venerate Genesis, and therefore… something.  Except, we don’t.  

_Origin of Species_  matters as the first articulation of an important idea - but It is just a book, written by just a man, who did his best to tell the truth as he knew it.  Darwin got a bunch wrong, and Darwin’s text is a less-useful source of truth than accumulated experimental evidence and the current theory built thereon.  It is virtuous, commendable, to continue testing that theory and making new experiment.  The object is to **make true statements**.  

This is the opposite of how authoritarian Christians treat the Bible.  They claim that they’re just applying the plain text of God’s Word.  Except, scripture is internally inconsistent, so you have to choose which bits to apply.  The preachers have done this absolutely amazing job of reversing the grand translation project of the Reformation, by convincing their followers that only certain verses really _matter_ , and the rest of it’s true and all but _pay no attention to the bits behind the curtain_.  And from outside it looks like the sacredness of the text is a pretext for cherry-picking justifications of the preacher’s ideas of rightness.  (and, weird how often the preacher’s ideas of rightness are somewhere on a slippery slope toward fulltime D/s, where women’s only virtue lies in obedience to duly constituted authority.)  The object is to **find self-justification within the ‘inerrant’ text**.

It’s two fundamentally different views of canon.

We skeptical fan-types are applying our critical intelligence to canon, testing it, finding strengths and weaknesses, and experimenting to find ways to improve the weak parts.  These stories were made by people, for people, and we the people can and should re-make them at will.  

The preachers like Faraci - who hate being disagreed with, even by people they claim not to care about - need us to accept their authority to define canon.  They want us to buy into the idea that official canon is divine gift and us common folk are unworthy to touch it.  Only the chosen - the prophets hired by the corporations to write the next installment - are worthy.

[#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#fun with the culture wars](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fun-with-the-culture-wars) [#this still isn't quite what I'm trying to say](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-still-isn%27t-quite-what-I%27m-trying-to-say) [#there's a whole thing about the fragility of inerrancy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-a-whole-thing-about-the-fragility-of-inerrancy) [#if one bit's wrong it's all a lie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-one-bit%27s-wrong-it%27s-all-a-lie) [#which is nonsense](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-is-nonsense) [#Jesus being a jerk to Martha](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Jesus-being-a-jerk-to-Martha) [#does not render meritless the Sermon on the Plain](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/does-not-render-meritless-the-Sermon-on-the-Plain) [#but conversely](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-conversely) [#my admiration for the Sermon on the Plain](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/my-admiration-for-the-Sermon-on-the-Plain) [#does not perforce validate Jesus talking to Martha like that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/does-not-perforce-validate-Jesus-talking-to-Martha-like-that) [#<= like I said](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%3C%3D-like-I-said) [#Tangent City](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Tangent-City)

* * *

 

[6/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145832673894/the-schisms-on-fandom-and-heresy)

I did credit the skeptics with a lofty version of their _ideals_ , while sneering at an extreme version of conservative Christian _practice_ , so, yes… I think there’s something useful in there about those two opposed attitudes toward canon/texts/authority, but this analogy still needs work. 

You’re dead on about us fan-types still being blinkered by the dominant paradigm, though.  

[#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#I've got this one idea for an SPN fic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27ve-got-this-one-idea-for-an-SPN-fic) [#I'm going to have to write it sooner or later to make it go away](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-going-to-have-to-write-it-sooner-or-later-to-make-it-go-away) [#but the whole thing turns on bringing back Cassie Robinson](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-the-whole-thing-turns-on-bringing-back-Cassie-Robinson) [#(with Dean's child)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28with-Dean%27s-child%29) [#and promptly fridging Cassie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and%C2%A0promptly%C2%A0fridging-Cassie) [#and seriously?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-seriously%3F) [#*this* is how my brain works?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Athis%2A-is-how-my-brain-works%3F) [#thanks brain](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/thanks-brain)

* * *

 

[6/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146120850519/ericfvckingharris-growing-up-in-an-abusive)

[#this is why I live alone](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-why-I-live-alone) [#only way to relax at home](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/only-way-to-relax-at-home) [#without someone inadvertently tripping my hypervigilance](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/without-someone-inadvertently-tripping-my-hypervigilance) [#Folks keep saying they like living with other people](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Folks-keep-saying-they-like-living-with-other-people) [#that they *like* having someone else around all the time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-they-%2Alike%2A-having-someone-else-around-all-the-time) [#and it's not that I don't believe them exactly](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-it%27s-not-that-I-don%27t-believe-them-exactly) [#but for the life of me I cannot comprehend it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-for-the-life-of-me-I-cannot-comprehend-it)

* * *

 

[6/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146313060991/thequantumqueer-graceebooks-jon-lox)

[#so tired of this sort of crap](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-tired-of-this-sort-of-crap) [#she's been for pretty much the same stuff for thirty years now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she%27s-been-for-pretty-much-the-same-stuff-for-thirty-years-now) [#but every time she makes a policy statement there's some jackass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-every-time-she-makes-a-policy-statement-there%27s-some-jackass) [#proclaiming that she's belatedly pandering](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/proclaiming-that-she%27s-belatedly-pandering) [#HE wasn't listing to that shrill female voice](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/HE-wasn%27t-listing-to-that-shrill-female-voice) [#so she must not have said anything](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-she-must-not-have-said-anything) [#HE insists that she's just reacting to one man or another](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/HE-insists-that-she%27s-just-reacting-to-one-man-or-another) [#Bernie Barrack whoever](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bernie-Barrack-whoever) [#because HE can't cope with a woman creating anything other than a baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-HE-can%27t-cope-with-a-woman-creating-anything-other-than-a-baby) [#he's had his fingers in his ears](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-had-his-fingers-in-his-ears) [#chanting LA LA LA](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/chanting-LA-LA-LA) [#and claims she never spoke](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-claims-she-never-spoke) [#and everyone believes HIM](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-everyone-believes-HIM)

* * *

 

[6/23/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146364660902/suricattus-friend-fellow-author-and-elected)

Yep.  the point of all that was not to pass the bills in question.  The votes aren’t there, not this year.  The point was to make a few things crystal clear to the viewing audience.  Like, ‘both sides do it’ is a crock of shit.  Like, the current congressional ‘gridlock’ is not the result of complimentary schismogenesis, but of unilateral obstructionism.  Like, what’s actually preventing gun control legislation in the US is the Republicans in Congress.  Like, a third of the Senate and the entire House are up for re-election in November, so we the voters can replace those Republicans with Democrats, who will vote for gun control.

[#pray for gun control](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pray-for-gun-control) [#hell yes it's all a publicity stunt](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hell-yes-it%27s-all-a-publicity-stunt) [#but being polite was getting jack shit done](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-being-polite-was-getting-jack-shit-done) [#past time for some dramatics and theatrics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/past-time-for-some-dramatics-and-theatrics) [#past time to say 'no you move'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/past-time-to-say-%27no-you-move%27) [#vote the down-ticket races](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/vote-the-down-ticket-races)

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

[7/5/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146949628209/bird-print-on-my-sisters-back-window-7416)

Bird-print on my sister’s back window 7/4/16.

[#poor thing must have been really flying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/poor-thing-must-have-been-really-flying) [#no bird was found below the window](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-bird-was-found-below-the-window) [#so presumably it got up and walked it off](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-presumably-it-got-up-and-walked-it-off) [#poor bird](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/poor-bird) [#you can see its little face](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you-can-see-its-little-face)

* * *

 

[7/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147284819132/a-quick-thought-on-pacific-rim) [a quick thought on Pacific Rim]

[#ah nostalgia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ah-nostalgia) [#I went to HS next to a Marine Air Base](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-went-to-HS-next-to-a-Marine-Air-Base) [#helicopters in the middle of the night were unremarkable](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/helicopters-in-the-middle-of-the-night-were-unremarkable) [#Several of my friends reported sitting in a car late at night](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Several-of-my-friends-reported-sitting-in-a-car-late-at-night) [#dropping off their sweetie and stayed to talk a while](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dropping-off-their-sweetie-and-stayed-to-talk-a-while) [#or something](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-something) [#and getting spotlighted by a helicopter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-getting-spotlighted-by-a-helicopter) [#loud bright kinda terrifying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/loud-bright-kinda-terrifying) [#The base is gone now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-base-is-gone-now) [#Our old way of life swept aside](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Our-old-way-of-life-swept-aside) [#Good riddance](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Good-riddance)

* * *

 

[7/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147285890439/mom-enough-the-return-of-the-absentee-mother-as) [return of the absentee mother as a threat]

[#self-interested action in women is villainy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/self-interested-action-in-women-is-villainy) [#The Mother-Archetype is the Angel in the House](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Mother-Archetype-is-the-Angel-in-the-House) [#her only acceptable exit is unto Heaven](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/her-only-acceptable-exit-is-unto-Heaven) [#any other maternal departure is a Fall into the Pit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/any-other-maternal-departure-is-a-Fall-into-the-Pit) [#The fallen mother only returns to bedevil her young](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-fallen-mother-only-returns-to-bedevil-her-young)

* * *

 

[7/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147704201830/strange-women-lying-in-ponds-distributing-swords)

[#God himself could descend unto the DNC](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/God-himself-could-descend-unto-the-DNC) [#and hand a flaming sword direct to HRC](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-hand-a-flaming-sword-direct-to-HRC) [#and pronounce in world-spanning reverberations](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-pronounce-in-world-spanning-reverberations) [#'Behold my best-beloved](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27Behold-my-best-beloved) [#she who will bring justice to the nations'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she-who-will-bring-justice-to-the-nations%27) [#and the next day all the headlines would be](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-next-day-all-the-headlines-would-be) [#'Is Hill stepping out on Bill?'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27Is-Hill-stepping-out-on-Bill%3F%27)

* * *

 

[7/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147758343647/leupagus-imaginarycircus-sofia-ciel)

[The Cancer Society](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cancer.org%2Ftreatment%2Fsupportprogramsservices%2Findex%3Fgclid%3DCPKH1veChc4CFceBfgodRpwN6g&t=YWJjNmFlNGVhOWEwNWEzM2Y5ZmM1Zjg0YmZkOGFhOGI0MGJlNTQ0MSx2b2pwUkdEcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147758343647%2Fleupagus-imaginarycircus-sofia-ciel&m=1) gives practical help to people with cancer.  When I was 16 they showed up at my house with a hospital bed & other equipment so my uninsured mother could be sick at home instead of sick in nursing care we couldn’t afford.  15 years later one of their volunteers came to my dad’s house in the middle of the night to walk my sisters through what to do about his body, leftover meds, etc.

Support your local Cancer Society.

[#support your local Cancer Society](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/support-your-local-Cancer-Society) [#I keep expecting to see pictures of that pink fracking drill](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-keep-expecting-to-see-pictures-of-that-pink-fracking-drill) [#as part of a Burning Man tentacle installation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-part-of-a-Burning-Man-tentacle-installation)

* * *

 

[7/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147784054824/dont-you-think-its-a-little-pathetic-that-all)

cf

[#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#Just by existing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Just-by-existing) [#art made by women](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/art-made-by-women) [#propagates the idea that we are more than fuckable livestock](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/propagates-the-idea-that-we-are-more-than-fuckable-livestock) [#of course they have to dismiss it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/of-course-they-have-to-dismiss-it) [#appropriate it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/appropriate-it) [#destroy it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/destroy-it) [#Without half the world' population to trample underfoot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Without-half-the-world%27-population-to-trample-underfoot) [#they have no foundation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-have-no-foundation)

* * *

 

[7/23/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147880191520/went-to-see-ghostbusters-again-about-the-time)

went to see Ghostbusters again.  About the time Holtzman started dancing with the blowtorches, my BFF leaned over and said, ‘Christopher Lloyd.’

…and I was all, yes, exactly, that’s who I was trying to think of but kept getting Matt Frewer.  

[#aging sucks](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/aging-sucks) [#Holtzman owes a lot to Doc Brown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Holtzman-owes-a-lot-to-Doc-Brown)

* * *

 

[7/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148090944265/batmanisagatewaydrug-whats-that-some)

[#the whole back wall of the ground floor](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-whole-back-wall-of-the-ground-floor) [#gets layered deep in refrigerator art](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gets-layered-deep-in-refrigerator-art) [#twenty years down the road](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/twenty-years-down-the-road) [#they're interviewing newly-minted PhDs](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they%27re-interviewing-newly-minted-PhDs) [#Erin wants a research assistant](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Erin-wants-a-research-assistant) [#Patty runs a post-doc program in urban history](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Patty-runs-a-post-doc-program-in-urban-history) [#Abby and Holtzy are always looking for new people to blow shit up with](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Abby-and-Holtzy-are-always-looking-for-new-people-to-blow-shit-up-with) [#and half the candidates head straight for the back wall](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-half-the-candidates-head-straight-for-the-back-wall) [#and dig down a few layers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-dig-down-a-few-layers) [#to find the crayon drawing they made for their heroes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-find-the-crayon-drawing-they-made-for-their-heroes) [#always still there](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/always-still-there)

* * *

 

[7/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148155581210/geekgirlsarereal-the-macra-tinker-brows)

I grew up on Heinlein, and I remember one of his essays (maybe in _Expanded Universe_?) dripping scorn for the spectacle of Soviet children brought to Moscow and given medals for informing on their (political) parents.  

Not long after I read that, I saw a child on the nightly news who’d been brought to Washington and personally given a medal by Nancy Reagan for informing on his (drug dealer) parents.

[#land of the free](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/land-of-the-free) [#home of the brave](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/home-of-the-brave) [#seriously creepy distopia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/seriously-creepy-distopia)

* * *

 

[7/31/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148254659018/drst-standinginthemist)

The *really* fun part is, involuntary sterilizations still go on in the US - to poor women of color.  

It’s barely-covert white supremacist eugenics: gotta have the white women outbreeding everyone else.  And their cover story is overt misogyny: they don’t think grown women are capable of giving medical consent.  

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#women as livestock](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/women-as-livestock) [#gynecologists as veterinarians](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gynecologists-as-veterinarians)

* * *

 

[7/31/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148277787940/justanotheridijiton-x-x) [Lost Boys]

[#one of my roommates that summer](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/one-of-my-roommates-that-summer) [#was a security guard](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/was-a-security-guard) [#on the lot where they kept the helicopters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/on-the-lot-where-they-kept-the-helicopters) [#The guy in saffron in the opening montage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-guy-in-saffron-in-the-opening-montage) [#would monologue on the bus](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/would-monologue-on-the-bus) [#he was scarier than the teen-idol vampires](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-was-scarier-than-the-teen-idol-vampires) [#Thirty years gone in the blink of an eye](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Thirty-years-gone-in-the-blink-of-an-eye) [#nostalgia wallow](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/nostalgia-wallow)

* * *

 

 

8/12/16

Strandbeest walking at the Exploratorium

they’re [here through September 5th](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exploratorium.edu%2Fstrandbeest&t=ZDcwNTQwYzFjMDE1NjE5NDVlMWU0ZGVhMzNiZDBmMTA4OTBhZjNhYyxMSHFLa2szYg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F148871658542%2Fstrandbeest-walking-at-the-exploratorium-theyre&m=1) go see them they’re awesome

 

[#art q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/art-q) [#Theo Jansen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Theo-Jansen) [#go see the Strandbeests](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/go-see-the-Strandbeests) [#when they visit your local science museum](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-they-visit-your-local-science-museum) [#STRANDBEESTS](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/STRANDBEESTS)

* * *

 

8/13/16 **Still Strandbeests**

 

 

 

besailed Beest:

* * *

resting Beest:

(incl. inadvertent portrait of the artist)

* * *

Beest bits:

* * *

Beest periodicity:

(callidum, the hot period; tepideem, the less hot period)

* * *

hack beests: lego beest; hamster-driven beest; BEEST

 

[#art q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/art-q) [#STRANDBEESTS](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/STRANDBEESTS) [#tepideem: the less hot period](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tepideem%3A-the-less-hot-period)

* * *

 

8/13/16

 

 

 

And also...

[Cranes of the Port of Oakland](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=denied%3Adenied%3ABy%2520Ingrid%2520Taylar%2520-%2520Flickr%3A%2520Port%2520of%2520Oakland%2C%2520CC%2520BY%25202.0%2C%2520https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Fcurid%3D16883894&t=MjU0YmQxMzg4NzEyNGQ1ZjYxYThjMzc5OGNjYjc5YmQ2ZjVkNWZjYixJV3JpWjJFYQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F148875517963%2Fand-also&m=1):

Strandbeest: 

Pixar should make a short.

 

 

[#art q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/art-q) [#STRANDBEESTS](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/STRANDBEESTS) [#attention Pixar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/attention-Pixar) [#please make a small movie of this](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/please-make-a-small-movie-of-this) [#perhaps cranes walking on the water](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/perhaps-cranes-walking-on-the-water) [#to meet their small Dutch kin visiting across the bay](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-meet-their-small-Dutch-kin-visiting-across-the-bay) [#and dancing together on the piers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-dancing-together-on-the-piers)

* * *

[8/13/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148878505244/proposed-cake-toppers-for-my-sisters-wedding)

 

 

 

 

  


Proposed cake-toppers for my sister’s wedding.

 

 

[#I think these will work](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-think-these-will-work) [#now I just have to find the wind-up toys](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/now-I-just-have-to-find-the-wind-up-toys) [#for the scavenger hunt](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-the-scavenger-hunt)

* * *

 

[8/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149411265744/theres-this-one-car-ad-in-heavy-rotation-on-my)

 

 

 

there’s this one car ad in heavy rotation on my dash that shows a clear view of buildings I walk past every weekday on my way to work.   

that view has _followed me home_.

 

[#they photoshopped out the Target signage too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-photoshopped-out-the-Target-signage-too) [#sideslipping me back in time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sideslipping-me-back-in-time) [#to when that building had a bank on the ground floor](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-when-that-building-had-a-bank-on-the-ground-floor) [#with no visible signs on that side](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-no-visible-signs-on-that-side) [#It is all most disorienting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It-is-all-most-disorienting)

* * *

 

[8/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149452890054/it-was-awesome) **It Was Awesome**

 

 

 

Just got back from seeing Joan Jett & Heart live.  Joan Jett rocked so hard - like, I didn’t notice it was getting chilly, because I had her rock & roll to keep me warm - and the Wilson sisters still got it.  

If you can, go see them

_\---_

_eta:_  


also got me this attractive souvenir carafe.

 

[#Note to self: take every opportunity to see Joan Jett live](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Note-to-self%3A-take-every-opportunity-to-see-Joan-Jett-live) [#between the outdoor show and the clouds of smoke](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/between-the-outdoor-show-and-the-clouds-of-smoke) [#tomorrow's chest cold is going to be epic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tomorrow%27s-chest-cold-is-going-to-be-epic) [#Worth it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Worth-it) [#in the background of the photo you can see a thing the locals call 'haze'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-the-background-of-the-photo-you-can-see-a-thing-the-locals-call-%27haze%27) [#it's smog](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-smog)

* * *

[ 9/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150576454004/friends-my-time-grows-short) **Friends!  My time grows short -**

Come the first of October, my sister shall wed.  

In the ceremony, I am to recite… something, and then, by the power vested in me by the State of California and the Internet, pronounce them married.

I need to come up with **the thing to be recited** , like, really soon now.  I suggested the second stanza of [The Bells](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bartleby.com%2F102%2F88.html&t=ODY0N2M0ZTU1MWFkNzg1YThjODg5YmIwMjlmODUyZDI1MmRiNmU2NywybGFSbHNjeA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F150576454004%2Ffriends-my-time-grows-short&m=1), and [Forever Young](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.azlyrics.com%2Flyrics%2Fbobdylan%2Fforeveryoung.html&t=OTkyMDc2MGI5M2FmMTRmMGY0MGJhNmMwNzAwZDFmYmVmOWFmNjBkOSwybGFSbHNjeA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F150576454004%2Ffriends-my-time-grows-short&m=1), but they got _that look_ , so I moved on.  (Various people, including me, suggested “[Never Going to Give You Up](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdQw4w9WgXcQ&t=MmE4YWJmM2NlOWQ2ZDE5YjY0MDIwN2IyZTUyOThjY2RkYmNmOGUwNCwybGFSbHNjeA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F150576454004%2Ffriends-my-time-grows-short&m=1)” - which is at least suitable to a wedding - but it’s been generally agreed that a RickRoll is a last resort.)  My future sister-in-law grew up on heavy metal music, so they said I should find a metal lyric and recite that.

It’s just, metal tends more toward themes of “let’s fuck all night” and “why’d you break up with me?” than “together forever.”  And I don’t know the genre all that well.

Does anyone know a metal song that could be read as part of a wedding ceremony?

[#please help](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/please-help) [#if I don't come up with something metal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-I-don%27t-come-up-with-something-metal) [#they'll have me read something sticky-sweet](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they%27ll-have-me-read-something-sticky-sweet) [#all about the raptures of pair-bonding](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-about-the-raptures-of-pair-bonding) [#a subject I know nothing about](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-subject-I-know-nothing-about) [#metal will be better](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/metal-will-be-better) [#help me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/help-me)

 

[edoraslass](http://edoraslass.tumblr.com/) replied to your post [“Friends!  My time grows short -”](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150576454004/friends-my-time-grows-short)

> Can you just ask sister & s.o. their favourite artist & go from there?

My fsil was a big fan of the Scorpions in her youth.  My sister likes women singer-songwriters and thinks Joni Mitchell’s _Blue_ is the best album ever made.  

Oh, hey - there must be some women writing metal songs, right?  

[#edoraslass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/edoraslass) [#off to google](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/off-to-google)

 

[yarnyfan](http://yarnyfan.tumblr.com/) replied to your post [“Friends!  My time grows short -”](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150576454004/friends-my-time-grows-short)

> it’s a “please take me back” song overall and only marginally metal but the chorus to Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There For You” is very wedding-appropriate.

I like that idea.  I will bring it up to them.  

[#yarnyfan](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yarnyfan) [#thank you friend](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/thank-you-friend) [#In search of: wedding reading](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/In-search-of%3A-wedding-reading)

* * *

 

[ 9/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150767480177/drst-akireyta-amireal2u-taraljc)

I sometimes go looking for odd combinations of characters, just to see if someone’s written them together, and how it turned out.  Sometimes I hit gold - that [Modesty Blaise/Buffyverse crossover](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F84012&t=ODQzOWFmODdjYWI1NDYxN2U5Mjg0NTg5NmQ5NGIxODA5OWRjMWExOSxTYW5hdGE0Mw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F150767480177%2Fdrst-akireyta-amireal2u-taraljc&m=1) was fun.  Most of the time, though, what looks like a result is actually somebody’s omnibus collected works.  Massively disappointing - and it’s made worse because all those tangled-up tags mean the crossover I’m looking for just _might_ be in there - but I’m usually not willing to click though every. single. chapter on the off chance.

* * *

[9/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151097638568/natalie-portman-being-confused-by-the-fact-that)

I did customer service for a US-wide phone company for a while.  I figured out damn quick that NYNEX customers got short-tempered if you wasted their time, while in BellSouth territory, they hated the implication that we were not all ladies and gentlemen of leisure, with with no more pressing business than to exchange compliments all day.  In the midwest they got touchy when the conversation got too personal, and I never did figure out where the line was.

[#regional variation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/regional-variation) [#I'm from the west coast](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-from-the-west-coast) [#so I thought of other PacBell customers as 'normal'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-I-thought-of-other-PacBell-customers-as-%27normal%27) [#though we do expect random people on the phone to humor us in our eccentricities](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/though-we-do-expect-random-people-on-the-phone-to-humor-us-in-our-eccentricities) [#in a way other regions don't](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-a-way-other-regions-don%27t) [#we also use 'barbecue' as a synonym for 'cookout'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-also-use-%27barbecue%27-as-a-synonym-for-%27cookout%27) [#and ignore people who tell us we're wrong](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-ignore-people-who-tell-us-we%27re-wrong)

 


	4. Chapter 4

[10/6/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151431843355/this-is-the-wrong-hill-dude-singular-they-has)

 

This is the wrong hill, dude.  Singular ‘they’ has been in use for all of modern English.  “They” was forbidden as singular by a pack of 19th century grammarians who were just soooo enchanted with Latin.   _Latin_ doesn’t re-use pronouns that way and _Latin_ is just so perfect and we all have to stomp all over common boring English to make it more like classy sophisticated  _Latin_.

Singular ‘they’ may have been hounded out of formal writing but it never left the language.  It’s perfectly comprehensible to fluent speakers and (as seen above) is routinely used in speech.

Wrong hill.

[#those grammarians were the ones who came up with generic 'he'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/those-grammarians-were-the-ones-who-came-up-with-generic-%27he%27) [#as if English didn't have enough problems of its own](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-if-English-didn%27t-have-enough-problems-of-its-own) [#just had to import some extra sexism from a dead language](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-had-to-import-some-extra-sexism-from-a-dead-language) [#see also split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/see-also-split-infinitives-and-ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition) [#there's a hair to be split about whether singular 'they'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-a-hair-to-be-split-about-whether-singular-%27they%27) [#would traditionally have been used](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/would-traditionally-have-been-used) [#when the sex of the antecedent is known](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-the-sex-of-the-antecedent-is-known) [#(no)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28no%29) [#but that's not the argument he's making here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-that%27s-not-the-argument-he%27s-making-here) [#he's just claiming the 'right' to ignore other people's wishes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-just-claiming-the-%27right%27-to-ignore-other-people%27s-wishes) [#bet he calls married women Mrs Husbandslast](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bet-he-calls-married-women-Mrs-Husbandslast) [#whether or not she wants his surname](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/whether-or-not-she-wants-his-surname) [#or uses another title](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-uses-another-title)

* * *

[10/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151535069836/news-item)  **News Item**

I hate Fleet Week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[#who thought having an air show over a city was a good idea?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-thought-having-an-air-show-over-a-city-was-a-good-idea%3F) [#low flying planes doing tricks right outside my window](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/low-flying-planes-doing-tricks-right-outside-my-window) [#only a matter of time before something goes Very Wrong](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/only-a-matter-of-time-before-something-goes-Very-Wrong) [#and it's SO DAMN LOUD](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-it%27s-SO-DAMN-LOUD) [#I hate Fleet Week](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-hate-Fleet-Week)

* * *

[10/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151539918849/pets-or-meat) P **ets or Meat?**

Trump’s position was already clear to anyone who was paying attention.  But, turns out, he was injudicious enough to say it out loud near a live mike: **women are meat**.

Meanwhile, the official Republican stance is as it has ever been: **women are pets** \- beloved members of the household who must be cared for but cannot be trusted to control their own fertility or freedom of movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[#Feminism is the radical notion that women are people](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Feminism-is-the-radical-notion-that-women-are-people) [#election 2016](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/election-2016) [#I'm with her](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-with-her)

* * *

 [10/11/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151653492243/thoughts-upon-watching-s4-of-orphan-black-for-the) **Thoughts upon watching s4 of Orphan Black for the first time**

 I hate the Duncans so much.  I mean, jumping-up-and-down-yelling-Kill!-Kill! kind of hate.  Both of them actively abusive right to the end.

 

 

 

haaaate.

[#Orphan Black spoilers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Orphan-Black-spoilers) [#also I wish they'd let Adele into the treehouse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/also-I-wish-they%27d-let-Adele-into-the-treehouse) [#Det. Bell is going to need his own lawyer any minute](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Det.-Bell-is-going-to-need-his-own-lawyer-any-minute) [#Where the hell was she from anyway?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Where-the-hell-was-she-from-anyway%3F) [#sounded like southern US](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sounded-like-southern-US) [#which would make her unlikely to be licensed to practice law in CA](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-would-make-her-unlikely-to-be-licensed-to-practice-law-in-CA) [#but that's me asking for logic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-that%27s-me-asking-for-logic) [#putting unnatural conditions on a tale](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/putting-unnatural-conditions-on-a-tale) [#so to speak](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-to-speak)

* * *

[10/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151920181612/intj-withablog)

 [#coulrophobia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/coulrophobia) [#^this](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Ethis) [#not *only* this](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-%2Aonly%2A-this) [#there's also a strong strain of classism](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-also-a-strong-strain-of-classism) [#'if you're poor you deserve it and your plight is laughable'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27if-you%27re-poor-you-deserve-it-and-your-plight-is-laughable%27) [#in the hilarious history of clowning](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-the-hilarious-history-of-clowning) [#but isn't it interesting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-isn%27t-it-interesting) [#how these days the standard clown wig is a rainbow afro?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/how-these-days-the-standard-clown-wig-is-a-rainbow-afro%3F)

* * *

 [10/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152320330195/bitchwhoyoukiddin-biology-official)

 no no no

 

 

 

Humans don’t domesticate dragons

Dragons domesticate humans.  We’d be their sheepdogs and rat-catching cats.  They’d pet us and build us nice warm hearths to sleep by, and sincerely mourn the ends of our short warm-blooded lives.

 

 

 

[#dragons domesticate humans](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dragons-domesticate-humans) [#see also Octavia Butler's 'Bloodchild'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/see-also-Octavia-Butler%27s-%27Bloodchild%27)

* * *

 [10/27/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152414016591/weird-facebook-moment) **Weird Facebook moment**  

My bff left a comment on a post by a woman we both used to work with (who I barely knew).  Because my bff left a comment, I can see the whole thread.  One of the other people who commented in that thread is a woman I went to high school with (but barely knew).  

I want to ask the woman I used to work with and the woman I went to high school with how they happen to know each other, but I barely know them, and I’m not sure either of them would remember me, like, at all.

Weird.

 [#Facebook Gothic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Facebook-Gothic) [#don't want to be intrusive](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-want-to-be-intrusive) [#but I am burning with curiosity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-I-am-burning-with-curiosity) [#the world is very small](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-world-is-very-small)

* * *

[ 11/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152676076421/the-bad-news-i-have-to-report-for-jury-duty)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bad news: I have to report for jury duty tomorrow morning.

Silver lining: perfect opportunity to read the ballot pamphlets.  (I’ve been putting it off.)

TWENTY-FIVE city/county propositions  
FIFTEEN state propositions

…plus president & VP, senate, house, state senate, assembly, one judicial race, a BART directorship, and the school board.

 

…I am reminded of [a story by Saki](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cs.cmu.edu%2F%7Ergs%2Fsk-hermann.html&t=ODE2MTAwYTYxYTA2N2IxOWQ5YzQwYzlkYTkwMzEwYTc1M2ZjYmEwMCxwaXBNWThxaA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F152676076421%2Fthe-bad-news-i-have-to-report-for-jury-duty&m=1).

 

 

 

[#a confluence of civic duties](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-confluence-of-civic-duties) [#Saki was an insistent anti-suffragist](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Saki-was-an-insistent-anti-suffragist) [#but very clever in his misogyny](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-very-clever-in-his-misogyny)

[11/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152712237349/welkinalauda-the-bad-news-i-have-to-report-for)

 

 

 

They only kept me for an hour.  I got to see two videos on the delights of the juroring experience, but did not get to finish reading my voter pamphlets.  I wasn’t even late for work.

Bought myself a latte as a reward for civic virtue anyway.

[#a confluence of civic duties](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-confluence-of-civic-duties) [#still have to finish reading those pamphlets](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-have-to-finish-reading-those-pamphlets) [#some of this stuff](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/some-of-this-stuff) [#I just don't know](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-just-don%27t-know) [#they want to hire a Public Advocate](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-want-to-hire-a-Public-Advocate) [#and... maybe?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and...-maybe%3F) [#if they were going to pay for the public advocate](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-they-were-going-to-pay-for-the-public-advocate) [#by cutting down the board of supervisors staff](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/by-cutting-down-the-board-of-supervisors-staff) [#I'd like it better](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27d-like-it-better) [#but no](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-no) [#still too many supervisors](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-too-many-supervisors) [#with too many paid courtiers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-too-many-paid-courtiers) [#*sigh*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Asigh%2A)

* * *

 

[11/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152939457479/im-going-to-make-up-theories-about-my-tv-show)

I’m going to make up theories about my tv show tonight in hopes that the election results are better in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[#may the results be better in the morning](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/may-the-results-be-better-in-the-morning) [#because I don't even know what happens if they're not](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-I-don%27t-even-know-what-happens-if-they%27re-not)

* * *

[11/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152955544269/awed-frog-screamedsooloud-me-trying-to)

 

 

 

They blame Obama.  

It’s going to be a re-run of the second Bush, but with a slightly different set of thieves looting the treasury.  He’ll fabricate new wars out of spite and lies.  Civil rights will regress, but the right of white guys to openly carry firearms will not be abridged.  The economy will go to hell.  The national debt will go through the roof.

While it’s happening, Trump voters will blame Obama for all of it.  When Trump’s term is over, it all goes down the memory hole.  Just as 9/11 is now Obama’s fault, Trump’s wars and Trump’s debts and the risen sea level will become not just his successor’s _problem_ but his successor’s _fault_.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[#election 2016](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/election-2016) [#white guys cannot fail](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/white-guys-cannot-fail) [#they can only be failed](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-can-only-be-failed)

* * *

[11/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153002530024/anti-trump-march-going-up-market-street-in-sf) **Anti-Trump march going up Market Street in SF**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t tell how many from my window.  Hundreds, so far.

They all look like high school kids

 

 

 

[#election 2016](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/election-2016)

* * *

[11/11/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153037267149/suppose-simply-keeping-still-means-you-manage)

 

 

 

[#music q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/music-q) [#What Would You Do?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/What-Would-You-Do%3F) [#Lotte Lenya](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lotte-Lenya) [#Cabaret](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Cabaret) [#second night in a row I've woken up at 4am](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/second-night-in-a-row-I%27ve-woken-up-at-4am) [#heart racing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/heart-racing) [#can't get back to sleep](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/can%27t-get-back-to-sleep) [#theytold us the election would be rigged](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/theytold-us-the-election-would-be-rigged) [#they told us about russian hackers getting into the voting machines](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-told-us-about-russian-hackers-getting-into-the-voting-machines) [#what if that's what actually happened?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what-if-that%27s-what-actually-happened%3F) [#what if?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what-if%3F) [#Nothing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Nothing) [#that's what](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that%27s-what) [#peaceful transfer of power is so ingrained](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/peaceful-transfer-of-power-is-so-ingrained) [#once the election's called there's no walking it back](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/once-the-election%27s-called-there%27s-no-walking-it-back) [#fantasies about faithless electors are just that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fantasies-about-faithless-electors-are-just-that) [#fantasies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fantasies) [#Anyway](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Anyway) [#^this is tonight's earworm](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Ethis-is-tonight%27s-earworm)

* * *

 

[11/14/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153205412114/guy-beneath-my-window-is-chanting-fuck-donald)

Guy beneath my window is chanting “Fuck Donald Trump” all by himself.  I’m up here thinking, "dude, I wouldn’t fuck Donald Trump with your dick.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

[#whiskey is not making me frisky](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/whiskey-is-not-making-me-frisky) [#though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/though) [#if Trump withdrawing his candidacy from the Electoral College was on the table](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-Trump-withdrawing-his-candidacy-from-the-Electoral-College-was-on-the-table) [#I'd suck it up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27d-suck-it-up) [#so to speak](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-to-speak) [#and do what needed doing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-do-what-needed-doing)

* * *

 

[11/17/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153307843499/niamhlincoln-faunmoss-velmadinkleys)

 

 

 

The ‘forgive’ thing - sometimes it means ‘write off,’ as in, ‘the bank forgave the loan.’  Sometimes it means ‘pretend none of it ever happened,’ as in, ‘he said I had to forgive him because he’s changed.’  

When people say, ‘you should try to forgive him, for your own sake,’ it’s true for the first meaning.  Chasing a deadbeat is almost never a good use of your time.  Writing off the debt, then refusing to extend more credit to a known bad risk, is the best resolution you’re apt to get.  

But you allowing a hard reset, pretending away what he already owes you, and extending unlimited further credit?  That’s only good for the freeloader who’s trying to suck you dry.

 

 

 

[#personal lexicon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/personal-lexicon)

* * *

[11/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153391815926/prokopetz-cumaeansibyl-orriculum-yknow)

 

 

 

[#that dude Sully on Bones](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-dude-Sully-on-Bones) [#the writers had every damn character saying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-writers-had-every-damn-character-saying) [#Why *wouldn't* any woman want to leave behind her life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Why-%2Awouldn%27t%2A-any-woman-want-to-leave-behind-her-life) [#her career her friends her exquisitely appointed lab](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/her-career-her-friends-her-exquisitely-appointed-lab) [#to run around the Caribbean](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-run-around-the-Caribbean) [#alone on a boat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/alone-on-a-boat) [#with a guy who's been planning the move for longer than he's been dating her](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-a-guy-who%27s-been-planning-the-move-for-longer-than-he%27s-been-dating-her) [#but only mentioned it to her when he was a week from leaving](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-only-mentioned-it-to-her-when-he-was-a-week-from-leaving) [#no red flags there](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-red-flags-there) [#no sirree](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-sirree) [#Any woman would jump at a chance like that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Any-woman-would-jump-at-a-chance-like-that) [#The only solution to the mystery: she's in love with someone else](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-only-solution-to-the-mystery%3A-she%27s-in-love-with-someone-else) [#yes that's it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yes-that%27s-it) [#she's in love with someone else](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she%27s-in-love-with-someone-else)

* * *

[11/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153435800579/bigskydreaming-also-while-talking-about-the)

Also Pence is [being coy about releasing his own emails](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-fix%2Fwp%2F2016%2F11%2F17%2Fvice-president-elect-mike-pence-has-his-own-email-dispute-in-indiana%2F&t=OTM1MmFkNGUzMzM3ODRjNjRiM2IyYmEyZTRjNjFjNzZiMWM1MjNiOSxGQkE3bUMwUw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F153435800579%2Fbigskydreaming-also-while-talking-about-the&m=1) and [Ivanka Trump is sitting in on diplomatic meetings](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpeople%2Fivanka-trump-meeting-donald-trump-japanese-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-a7424191.html&t=ZjQ0MzY0NWI2NzFkOTRkYmQ0OGU3ZjNmMzdmYWQ0MzMwMTNmOTBhOSxGQkE3bUMwUw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F153435800579%2Fbigskydreaming-also-while-talking-about-the&m=1).

 

 

 

[#this is not normal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-not-normal) [#the Hamilton cast routinely does special remarks during their curtain calls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-Hamilton-cast-routinely-does-special-remarks-during-their-curtain-calls) [#having Pence in the audience guaranteed it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/having-Pence-in-the-audience-guaranteed-it) [#if he'd just wanted to see a show](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-he%27d-just-wanted-to-see-a-show) [#Jersey Boys is still running](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Jersey-Boys-is-still-running) [#and there's a revival of Cats](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-there%27s-a-revival-of-Cats) [#Pence et al would have to be unimaginably stupid](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Pence-et-al-would-have-to-be-unimaginably-stupid) [#for him to Oops! into this situation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-him-to-Oops%21-into-this-situation) [#this was a deliberate feint](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-was-a-deliberate-feint)

* * *

 [11/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153623415432/thanksgiving-hosted) **Thanksgiving Hosted!**

 My eldest sister’s stuffed pumpkins came out beautifully.  I won the first Risk game; my nephew won the second.  We finished the puzzle and two bottles of wine.  They’re all out for a walk now.  Soon they shall return and we shall have the first round of leftovers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we go to my other sister’s house and finish the pies.

 

 

[#happy holidays](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/happy-holidays)

* * *

[11/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153700816759/sandalwoodandsunlight-doj-comment-line)

 

 

 

I saw some commentary this morning that was all, “but a recount could legitimize a Trump presidency!”  And… so what?  Republicans _already_ govern like they’ve got a massive popular mandate when they’ve got a bare legislative majority achieved through gerrymandering and voter suppression.  If a recount verifies the present results, well, the Republicans will still attack Medicare in the upcoming congressional session, and Trump will still try to default on our international treaty obligations like he’s defaulted on every contract he’s ever signed.  Meanwhile, the rest of us can wave away the clouds of conspiracy theory and buckle down to the real work of resistance.  

But if the results change… well.  It’s worth finding out.

 

 

 

[#there is no down side to doing the recount](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-is-no-down-side-to-doing-the-recount) [#I wish someone were trying in NC and FL as well](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wish-someone-were-trying-in-NC-and-FL-as-well)

* * *

 

[11/27/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153733607024/drst-darthmelyanna-oparu-rowark-sq)

 

 

 

There’s a couple where I’ve gotten partway through an interminable middle section that would have been better represented as, “what with one thing and another, three years passed,” and I realize that the author has made a deliberate stylistic choice to detail every single day of those three years, and that’s when I bail out.  

Lots of other people seemed to like them a lot, though, so I guess it’s just me?

 

 

 

[#litcrit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/litcrit)

* * *

 

[11/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153866023837/notes-on-flag-burning-in-the-us-it-remains-legal)

 

 

 

Notes on flag-burning:

in the US it remains legal to burn any flag you like, as long as a) you have the permission of the owner of the piece of cloth in question, and b) you obey any applicable statutes on open flames and burning stuff in general.

The local constabulary may choose to express objections to flag-burning, regardless of actual legality.  Don’t give them a legit destruction of property charge to play with.

 

 

 

[#this is not normal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-not-normal) [#or good](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-good)

* * *

[11/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153879351334/the-choice-of-tom-price-for-hhs-probably-means)

 

 

 

 

[#this is not normal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-not-normal) [#I guess these folks are just more invested in their principles](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-guess-these-folks-are-just-more-invested-in-their-principles) [#like misogyny racism not admitting they've been suckered](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/like-misogyny-racism-not-admitting-they%27ve-been-suckered) [#than they are in not dying prematurely of something curable](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/than-they-are-in-not-dying-prematurely-of-something-curable)

* * *

 

[ 12/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153999465150/theres-a-dude-in-a-santa-hat-down-in-the-plaza)

there’s a dude in a Santa hat down in the plaza playing Christmas music on a flute.  right now it’s kind of charming but I have a feeling I’ll be ready to kill him soon.

 

 

 

 

[#tis the season](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tis-the-season) [#dance of the sugar plum fairies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dance-of-the-sugar-plum-fairies) [#have yourself a merry little christmas](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas) [#the first noel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-first-noel) [#gloria in excelsis deo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gloria-in-excelsis-deo)

* * *

 

[12/4/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154049439749/seeing-this-upsets-me-so-it-must-be-wrong-and)

echoing the rec for issendai’s _[Down the Rabbit Hole](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.issendai.com%2Fpsychology%2Festrangement%2Findex.html&t=M2JiMGZjMDYzMDZkNmUyOTRmMjljOTlmMGVlM2E4Njc4M2QyZDc3OSxsejlJWWprNw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154049439749%2Fseeing-this-upsets-me-so-it-must-be-wrong-and&m=1)_.  I found it really helpful for figuring out the distinction between ‘this person is passionate about their position’ and ‘this person is being abusive.’  (Basically, anyone posting their ill-wishes and violently punitive fantasies for another participant in the conversation?  Wrong side of the line.)

* * *

 

[12/5/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154082468449/westfailia-tipping-is-such-an-insidious-labour)

 

 

This form of exploitation persists in the US because it is codified in law, and laws can be changed.  

so what I’m saying is, form a union and vote for politicians who will abolish the tipped minimum wage.

 

 

[#union yes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/union-yes) [#abolish the tipped minimum wage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/abolish-the-tipped-minimum-wage)

* * *

 

 

 

[12/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154213703605/alliestration-a-thread-about-stories-im)

I’m pushing 50, and I _hated_ the end of _The Hunger Games_.

Katniss had choices, there at the end, and I was completely fucking mystified that she didn’t choose to retreat to her nice safe house with what was left of her family to cozy up with her PTSD… and then, five/ten/twenty years later, partner with someone she’s never had a flashback of.

That ending was tacked-on nonsense.   _My Fair Lady_ -level bad.

 

 

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#compulsory heterosexuality](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/compulsory-heterosexuality) [#compulsory matrimony](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/compulsory-matrimony) [#bullshit endings trashing what were good stories](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bullshit-endings-trashing-what-were-good-stories) [#not just the kids see that this is bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-just-the-kids-see-that-this-is-bullshit)

* * *

[12/20/16 ](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154728417387/report-trump-will-enter-white-house-with-his-own)

 

I don’t think that’s quite it.  

Look at who Trump is planning to hire to run the government. He does not give half a rat’s ass for things like knowledge or demonstrated competence. He wants people who are personally beholden to him. He wants people he can fire with no notice for failing an unannounced loyalty test.

The Secret Service is composed of people who volunteered to protect government officials. They’ll protect whoever they’re assigned to protect. They don’t give a professional shit about regime change and who’s currently holding office. Having personal feelings of loyalty to their protectees is not a virtue. More important, they’re permanent civil service. Trump can have agents transferred off his detail but he has no power to take away their livelihoods and their pensions.

Trump doesn’t want _the best_ ; Trump wants _people he personally controls_.

 

[#this is not normal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-not-normal) [#and it is rank stupidity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-it-is-rank-stupidity) [#to put loyalty over competence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-put-loyalty-over-competence) [#when choosing personal security](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-choosing-personal-security) [#Though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Though) [#it also seems possible that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-also-seems-possible-that) [#our president-elect's overseas friends](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/our-president-elect%27s-overseas-friends) [#may want to make suggestions about](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/may-want-to-make-suggestions-about) [#who is protecting their investment](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-is-protecting-their-investment)

* * *

 

 [12/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154755478897/hearseeno-obsessionisaperfume-bakasara) [Without revealing your actual age, what something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?]

 

Credit card carbons.  

Maze Wars.

On the last business day of the year, office workers would pull the paper out of their desk calendars and throw the paper out the window on to the street.  

[#kids today](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kids-today) [#don't know how widespread that last one was](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-know-how-widespread-that-last-one-was) [#I remember Montgomery St in SF](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-remember-Montgomery-St-in-SF) [#intermittent flurries of paper would come from high windows all day](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/intermittent-flurries-of-paper-would-come-from-high-windows-all-day) [#by afternoon the sidewalks were drifted a foot or two deep](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/by-afternoon-the-sidewalks-were-drifted-a-foot-or-two-deep) [#made a very wasteful mess](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/made-a-very-wasteful-mess) [#but fun](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-fun) [#and it was pretty to watch the little pages fall](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-it-was-pretty-to-watch-the-little-pages-fall)

* * *

 

[12/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154799783830/christmas-chicken-2009)

 

 

 

Christmas Chicken 2009

  


 

[#tis the season](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tis-the-season) [#that was just before I moved out of my old place](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-was-just-before-I-moved-out-of-my-old-place) [#I wonder what I did with that turtle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wonder-what-I-did-with-that-turtle) [#it makes a nice night-light](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-makes-a-nice-night-light)

* * *

 

[12/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154901249712/wilwheaton-igotkittypryde-wilwheaton)

 

A grown man decides that he doesn’t feel like doing the job for which he is being paid, so he actively prevents a woman from doing the job for which she is being paid, first by loudly appraising her aesthetic value as a sexual object, then by refusing to do anything _but_ appraise her aesthetic value as a sexual object.

It’s beside the point that his appraisal was ‘positive.’  The point is that every man is absolutely entitled to judge any woman on her worth as an object, and he is absolutely entitled to pronounce that judgment, anytime, anywhere.  The point is that women aren’t people, but objects for men’s use, so how could anyone object to him rhapsodizing about what a valuable object she is?

 

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#what an asshole](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what-an-asshole) [#valued objects aren't people either](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/valued-objects-aren%27t-people-either)

* * *

 

[12/27/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/155031249464/midnightmindcave-yarnyfan-im-about-to-be)

 

I went to high school five miles from El Toro Marine Air Base.  The last duck-and-cover drill I remember us doing, one of the bio teachers got in trouble with the administration because instead of telling his class to get under their desks, he led them out to the quad and had them turn toward the base and yell ‘boom’ on his cue.  I remember one guy saying later that if he had time after the sirens went, he’d hop in his car and drive _toward_ the base, to increase his chances of dying in the first explosion.  

El Toro Marine base is now a park.  Because of the ‘peace dividend.’

 

[#kids today think they've got a corner on nihilism](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kids-today-think-they%27ve-got-a-corner-on-nihilism) [#this is not normal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-not-normal) [#or at least for a little while it wasn't](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-at-least-for-a-little-while-it-wasn%27t)

* * *

[12/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/155077609620/rule-when-analyzing-or-critiquing-media-you-can)

 

Or to put it another way, choices made by authors on behalf of their characters can and should be interrogated differently than choices actual nonfictional people make on their own behalf.  

When someone pretends to believe that choices made by male authors for commercial reasons are instead choices made by the female characters themselves for feminist reasons, they are engaging in advocacy for a particular political position.  [Hint: it’s not feminism.]

 

[#sjr q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sjr-q) [#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda)

* * *

[12/28/16 ](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/155106781378/mylittleredgirl-rest-in-joyful-splendor-debbie)

To Miss Reynolds’ right here is [Donald O’Connor](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDonald_O%2527Connor&t=YjA1Yjg0MTg4YzM5YzM2MmFjYzBmNDkyMDlhMzY0MzFhNzRjYzYwNCwxSWNzMDk2WA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F155106781378%2Fmylittleredgirl-rest-in-joyful-splendor-debbie&m=1), who’d been supporting his family dancing since before he could shave.  On her left is [Gene Kelly](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGene_Kelly&t=Y2FjNjQxZTg5MGJkNTMwMzQzMjUyNzBhNDJhNzUxODc4ZTAyMTI2NSwxSWNzMDk2WA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F155106781378%2Fmylittleredgirl-rest-in-joyful-splendor-debbie&m=1), the choreographer for the film and Fred Astaire’s successor as the leading light of Hollywood dance.

Debbie Reynolds was hired for her voice.  

She was nineteen and she’d never really danced before.  Every move you see her doing in _Singing in the Rain_ , she learned in rehearsals and on set for _Singing in the Rain_.  She didn’t have time to build up calluses and endurance.  In the take above, we can’t see it, but her feet are bleeding.  They had to carry her on and off set, it hurt so bad.  And still.

She kept up.  When the cameras were rolling she kept up with two professionals who’d each been dancing longer than she’d been alive, and she did it in character shoes. 

[#in memoriam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-memoriam) [#Debbie Reynolds had a will of iron behind that pageant smile](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Debbie-Reynolds-had-a-will-of-iron-behind-that-pageant-smile)


End file.
